Friedrich --

* Thanks to Laurence Aurbach for pointing out this superb New Urbanist manifesto by New-Urb ayatollah Andres Duany in Planetizen here. Duany spells out 41 principles he wants to see architecture base itself on; tweak a word or two here and there, and I'd be happy to see all the arts based on them. Laurence is an interesting guy himself, and about as New-Urb as a person can be. He works as an assistant editor at the New-Urb publication The Town Paper (which I recommend, and which can be read here), and although he doesn't live in a New-Urb town, he does work in one, Kentlands. He has this to say about Duany's manifesto:

Architects of all stripes and persuasions seem to find these 41 principles to be valid, worthwhile and more-or-less uncontroversial. It is boggling that so many designers can agree to this list, and yet they produce such different works that lead to such heated disagreement about style. Those few that might disagree with Duany's principles (Eisenman, Muschamp, Koolhaas, etc.) would, I suspect, believe that a response to Duany is beneath their dignity.

* And thanks to Mike Snider (whose own blog is here) for pointing out this brilliant essay by Paul Lake here. Essential reading for art-lovers fed up with the modernist/po-mo thing, and curious about what's taking its place.

* Visitors who enjoy giving a little thought to the French may enjoy this Atlantic Online q&a with the novelist Diane ("Le Divorce") Johnson here.

* Here's a transcript of a first-rate Booknotes interview with the Princeton historian Robert Darnton. I'm a big Darnton fan. He's and 18th-century buff who's fascinated by the French and the Enlightenment, he's got a searching and industrious mind, and he writes elegantly and entertainingly for the general audience. If you haven't given his work a try, my tip is to start with The Great Cat Massacre, buyable here. In this interview, one of the points Darnton makes is a typtically Darnton point: that, until modern dentistry, most people lived with constant jaw and tooth pain.

* The economist Tyler Cowen (who co-blogs at Marginal Revolution, here, with Alex Tabarrok) is interviewed by by Nick Gillespie for Reason magazine online here. The Marginal Revolution duo are really rockin' out, by the way. It's one of the liveliest blogs around. And, hey, Cowen provides a link to this recent interview here with Milton Friedman.

* Gerald Vanderleun (whose blog is here) linked to this Washington Post piece here by his wife Sheryl. It seems that when Gerald gets an itch, there's nothing that's going to make him stop scratching. And he bought this digital camera, see, and ... Well, suffice it to say that many wives and husbands alike will recognize themselves in Sheryl's hilarious piece.

* Darwinianly speaking, why should music even exist? Nicholas Wade gives the question a good going-over for the NYTimes here.

* Tom Utley in the Spectator writes a hard to resist, 'fessing-up-to-it column about finally admitting that most art bores him, here. Who hasn't felt this way sometimes? Brian Micklethwait (here) is tickled.

* What form is the music life likely to take should the record companies really crumble? John Holbo takes a number of good swings at the topic here. Crooked Timber's Daniel Davies takes enthusiastic part in the comments-fest, and later formulates a few new thoughts back at Crooked Timber, here.

* Here's a good column by John Leo about America's immigration follies. "Nowadays," Leo writes, "referring to illegal immigration as somehow illegal is considered overly harsh and judgmental, perhaps racist and nativist as well."

* Blogs are springing up at the websites of all kinds of legit publications and institutions. Two responses: good for them! And: about time. Here's a promising newcomer from Britain's Adam Smith Institute.

* Jay Nordlinger writes an amusing column for the WSJ about why the Republicans (in his opinion, of course) are the real-guy party, here.

* Gareth Forman, the Eisenstein of stick-figure Java animation, has struck again, here, with his remake of that Spike Jonze/Christopher Walken/Fatboy Slim music video, whatever it was called. My kind of conceptual/karaoke art.

Best,

Michael